1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and an apparatus for creating an avatar, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for creating an avatar using avatar appearance type metadata.
2. Description of Related Art
With the development of computer operation function and graphic processing capability and popularization of high-speed Internet line, various three-dimensional online games have been generalized. Further, unlike games achieving specific purposes, a ‘life-type virtual reality’ service that can three-dimensionally implement a real living space and thus, experience virtual reality has also been commercialized.
In particular, the life-type virtual reality service provide environment similar to real environment so as to implement real life in a virtual space. In this case, the life-type virtual reality service needs to provide a three-dimensional stereoscopic space that is similar to reality or is difficult to be searched in real environment and set various correlations between users and implement a natural user avatar.
One of factors that dominate initial impression or use satisfaction of the life-type virtual real service may include user immersion into an avatar. Generally, as a user feels that he/she is united with an avatar, the immersion and satisfaction of the corresponding service are increased. In particular, when an avatar is a center of a service, a shape of an avatar, diversity of composition, and natural action are main factors determining the user immersion into the avatar.
The avatar is created according to an appearance of an object that is a target of the avatars, such as a person, an animal, an object, or the like. That is, the avatar is created based on data regarding the appearance.
The appearance type of the general avatar includes data extracted from a portion representing the appearance of the object. For example, the appearance type of the avatar may include a plurality of children elements such as face, forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, cheeks, lips, teeth, chin, makeup, headtype, ears, neck, body, arms, legs, clothes, shoes, accessory, or the like. The avatar approximating a human is created using the data.
However, in generating the avatar, it is difficult to generate the avatar more approximating the reality only by data for the existing appearance. Therefore, additional data for describing more detailed appearance features are needed, in addition to the data for the existing appearance.